After a long time, I can finally say I am READY to release this. After months, if not years, of hard work (well, maybe not that hard since I am lazy :P) I give to you....

SRB2 Chaos Domain
Version 2.1!Small little screenshot to show this thing is still alive!

Update log

Spoiler: 12/17/2013

Fix various bugs and over sights from the blue spring in SFZ2 to areas that broke in Multiplayer thanks to the Each Time linedef executor. And then some other odds and ins.

Spoiler: 12/10/2013

After a long wait, Chaos Domain 2.1 is released! It has been a long time since I made a new version, but I hope you guys have fun with this build. I will be the last one I can get out for awhile thanks to stuff going on in life.

Spoiler: 5/31/2012

Bug fix update, fixed a crash on SPZ3's boss and some other fixes.

STORY:

Spoiler:

After Eggman’s most recent set back, he was busy trying to come up with a new plan to defeat Sonic and his friends. He was lucky enough to find one of the Chaos Emeralds while searching for a place to start construction on a new base.

Using his last defeat as a key opportunity to lie low to study the emerald in greater detail, while doing so he had happen to find the diary of his Grandfather that made mention of the use of the Chaos Emeralds to manipulate space and time. Wishing to harness this power, he ran test after test trying figure out how to crack into the “Chaos Control”.

As time passed Eggman grew tired of taking precautions and decided to take a more direct approach, he attempted to split the emerald open. Unfortunately for him, Sonic and his friends found Eggman’s base when they were on the look for the Chaos Emeralds. In his hasty attempts at stopping Sonic, he started the process before the preparations were completed. A white flash erupted from the machine, slowly growing bigger and bigger, before engulfing the whole facility.

Sonic and his friends awoke finding themselves lying in a green meadow, with the sun setting over the mountains. Quickly noticing Eggman’s robots in the area, the group set of to figure out what happen and where they were at.

FEATURES:
Two full 3 act zones with custom bosses, and two 2 act zones!
Secrets hidden in the levels for extra re-play value!
New graphics for items, like rings, monitors, and more!
Custom scenery Items!
AND MORE!

I would do a full review but I'm too lazy. But anyway man, This was fun to play for 30 minutes. The only problems that stick out to me the most is the egg hopper, a few unfair platforming, and a little sense of direction.

The egg hopper, I feel like it has some issues; The camera effect is real cool, but it's happening for way too long, and it was messing with my attacks, I would either shorten the duration or make it zoom out and in once. Also, im not sure if it's hitbox is messed up, but everytime I'd try to hit, I'd just go right through him. Sometimes I'd attack him, and sometimes I won't.
The platforming can be real cheap due to robot spartas. Just get them away from the cliffs. Particularly if it's over a pit.
I'd get a little lost sometimes. Could be just me. I haven't played in a while. Probably wouldn't count this as a problem. Just me complaining.

Dude. That angel island reference was sick, man. Once it happened I knew exactly what you did to execute it. That's awesome. Also Egg Mansion has gotten violent and evil. :(

I've had a chance to play through this again, explore and look for secrets and play through the rest of the paths I missed on my first playthrough. So here are some more detailed thoughts on the level pack.
Solstice Pass

I’m just going to start by jumping right into the Egg Hopper, first of all I do quite like this boss. The initial first hit the player takes as the player learns how the boss works is inevitable which is a shame. But after that, I actually like how simple this boss is. It’s short but it forces you to pay attention the entire time to avoid taking damage and it’s simple enough to warrant being the boss of the first zone.

However there are some problems with the collision detection. I’m not sure whether this is because I might have been jumping through the wrong parts of the sprite, or whether the Egg Hopper is juts invincible during certain frames, but I passed through the boss several times when it is standing on the ground. It’s not game breaking, but it was an annoying bug.
Stronghold Forest

Starting off as a normal forest zone and transitioning to a fire level near the end of act 1 was great, especially how that was handled. Even though it is basically the same sequence I’ve seen countless times when playing Sonic 3, it was really impressive to see you pull it off in SRB2.

With regards to the Fire Breath boss coming immediately afterwards, I really enjoyed how the bombs forced me on the move at all times while making me watch my step to avoid running into the fire. But I would have appreciated some warning before the boss used its flamethrower attack at close range, this doesn’t need to be much just something small like a fraction of a second delay with a charging noise or a puff of smoke before the flame thrower activates.

The new Stronghold Forest 3 was pretty good as well, definitely an improvement on the old Stronghold Forest 2.

The oil in Stronghold Forest 2 bugs me, because it is often used in such large amounts it looks much deeper than it actually is. I was surprised I slipped on it rather than sinking in the first time I touched it. It also feels like a missed opportunity that you didn’t use it as a burning hazard in this level. Oil is very flammable after all~

Oh, I loved your choice of music in act 3 as well, Jamestown has great music. I also noticed that Jamestown is missing in the credits sequence. Might be an idea to fix that at some point in future.

Eggmansion Zone

The new ghost behaviour is nice, swooping rather than making a direct beeline for the player makes them much easier to manage. It’s also nice to see that they are not spammed as much in act 2 which makes the level far less frustrating as far as enemy placement goes.

The new dark rooms in act 2 were mostly okay, because it was still possible to make out the silhouettes of the platforms the player needs to jump on. But the dark room leading the kitchen was more of a nuiscance than anything else, trying to find the secret exit to move on in extreme darkness with 3-4 ghosts harassing me at any given time was tedious and frustrating for me.

This zone is mostly unchanged as far as I can tell other than a few small changes here and there, so there’s not much for me to say that I haven’t already covered in the OLDC. Good thing I already enjoy this level then~ although I do still think the timed door room in the second half of act 2 is a bit too difficult. Bearing in mind that I’m okay with the rest of the level being quite hard.

The first thing to say is "good job". So i found some bugs, here they are:
This lava don't damage the player:
There is no way to escape when Sonic fall here:
If the player is too close from the sides, he die without reason when he touch the floor or ceiling:
I didnt found any way to complete this section as Sonic (the water don't let me jump high enough):
Anyway this was an awesome experience. My favorite level was Egg Mansion act 2 just for the scary ambience and the final challenge.

Just to clerify my opinion, this may have been the best level pack I have played yet. One of them, atleast. As for my favorate level, I wold say Eggmansion. Who COULDN'T agree with that choice?
Besides the HOM in Eggmansion. It screws up the entire design for that grey scaled copy-zone. Otherwise, the entire level is just pure Awesome.
My regards ~ CyanAqua. I'd like to see more of this! Bet the comunity wil be happy.

I played a bit of this earlier today, and enjoyed it. However, what I'd wanted to download was the older version that was here prior to the 2.1 release. I've had to re-download the level-packs I had after wiping my laptop clean a few weeks ago, and I don't have the older release anymore. I know that this update is probably vastly superior, but I still want to have the old release on hand, for history's sake.

Are there any working download links to the previous publicly released version still around?

Thank you. I played the old demo and the new release back-to-back, and the jump in quality is huge.

I do have two large complaints and one small complaint, though. The first is a bug I encountered in act 1 of Eggmansion. In the outdoors segment where the rays of light float you upwards, there is a square arrangement of spikes above the third light beam. I was playing as Knuckles, and when he hit the roof, he didn't rebound back down. He was stuck running in air, caged in by the spikes, with no way to get out or be harmed. The only way to escape was to turn on no-clip. The simplest solution would be to take away a portion of the spikes, so that if the player doesn't leave the beam of light fast enough, they don't have to be trapped forever.

The second issue I have with the game, though, is the entire last zone. It simply isn't fun to play, at least for me. It has many of the same problems I have with Eggrock Zone. There are some interesting gimmicks, such as the area with VVVVVVV style gravity switching, and the water that acts like ice, but far too much in the zone is trying to get you killed to for the player to appreciate any of it. It's hard to admire the care put into the level layouts and gimmicks when there are instant death traps around every other corner, and piles of badnicks around the remaining corners.

It's just an observation of mine, but SRB2 as a gaming platform hasn't proven itself capable of making challenging levels that are still fun to play. Part of it is the fault of certain badnicks and the numbers in which they tend to be used, part of it is the levels themselves that don't take the time to ease players into new gimmicks before those gimmicks get the players killed, and another part of it is the fault of the out-dated "one and done" continue system.

Having said this, Chemical Facility isn't quite as unforgiving as Eggrock, and I was able to complete it. Perhaps my opinion will soften as I replay the stage, but memorization off all a stage's traps should not be a prerequisite to enjoyment of the stage.

Lastly, my small complaint is another bug, this time in Eggmansion Act 2. In the darkened library area, there is a trapdoor in the bookshelf that leads to the kitchen. But if you open the trapdoor from the right side, the bookcase kills you immediately as it swings out. There is no visual indication that anything is touching you, but I'm guessing the game thinks that you are inside the door hinge and are being crushed.

Aside from my three complaints, this is a very enjoyable level pack, unquestionably among the best produced thus far. I'll also give you a hand for the amount of bizarre FiM references you managed to stick in. As a fan of that show, I got a kick out of Eggmansion Act 2 in particular.

Edit: It should be noted that my comments regarding difficulty could apply to many official Sonic games as well, both 2D and 3D. And my opinion on the difficulty of Chemical Facility Zone comes from playing through the zone as Sonic, and no other character yet.

So. Uh. I'm kind of stuck, sad to say. I don't know what to do in the infinite hall loop in EMZ2. I can't find my way out. I've done everything I can think of

There's a wall that's actually a fake wall - meaning that you can pass though it. I don't remember if there was anything indicating where the wall was though. I was just thoking at everything hoping that something happened when I got there :P